The Startup Struggle

I am currently reading Ben Horowitz book The Hard Thing About Hard Things. I have not come even half yet, but is sincere and it tells the truth about how it is to run a startup. So many books tend to give advice and tell you how you should or shouldn’t do. Ben only tell you how things are…and that is a very good thing. Like when he writes about The Struggle, I found it so good and true that I just had to republish it.

“Life is struggle.” – Karl Marx

The Struggle is when you wonder why you started the company in the first place.The Struggle is when people ask you why you don’t quit and you don’t know the answer.The Struggle is when your employees think you are lying and you think they may be right.The Struggle is when food loses its taste.The Struggle is when you don’t believe you should be CEO of your company.The Struggle is when you know that you are in over your head and you know that you cannot be replaced.The Struggle is when everybody thinks you are an idiot, but nobody will fire you.The Struggle is where self-doubt becomes self-hatred.The Struggle is when you are having a conversation with someone and you can’t hear a word that they are saying because all you can hear is the Struggle.The Struggle is when you want the pain to stop.The Struggle is unhappiness.The Struggle is when you go on vacation to feel better and you feel worse.The Struggle is when you are surrounded by people and you are all alone.The Struggle has no mercy.The Struggle is the land of broken promises and crushed dreams.The Struggle is a cold sweat.The Struggle is where your guts boil so much that you feel like you are going to spit blood.The Struggle is not failure, but it causes failure. Especially if you are weak. Always if you are weak.

Most people are not strong enough. Every great entrepreneur from Steve Jobs to Mark Zuckerberg went through the Struggle and struggle they did, so you are not alone. But that does not mean that you will make it. You may not make it. That is why it is the Struggle.